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Welcome to my teaching blog! Here you will find my thoughts and resources for other teachers. In the navigation, you will also find my general teaching portfolio. Finally, for resources and materials that I provide my students, please visit my student website.

This Friday, I am planning to tell my first SL story of the year to my high school Spanish I students and I thought I'd share how we're getting ready and what we'll do with it. I'm also sharing my VERY novice text in case you'd like to share this story with your students! I'm hoping to get a video of me telling this story as well. (Here is the English version although mine is simplified.)

Getting ready: We've been in school for two weeks and have been focusing on a lot of norming and establishing our "why" for learning Spanish, so students have had some exposure but most of class time has been in English. THis week we are hitting the Spanish. The main Comprehensible Input they've had has been discussing the calendar/weather/events and TPR for common classroom actions. This week, we move into more PQA and will do our first One Word Image. Then, on Friday, I will tell this story. In all honesty, I'm pretty sure I could tell this story to students with zero Spanish skills, but this is where I felt it would fit best in my program this year.

I do an adapted version of the Story Listening method which I developed after collaborating with an excellent ELA teacher with Sped experience. While I was happy with what the majority of my class was gaining, I felt that there were a few kids that truly wanted to comprehend but simply could not.

First, I identify "helpful" words (words that will increase story comprehension, but there is no goal to master/learn these specific words - the goal is to comprehend the overall story) and do TPR with them before the story. I don't mind having a large list - some of these words are review and most of the words will be easily understood in context with the story, actions, drawing, and writing on the board to help. This just breaks down some of that process so that students can focus more on the story while it's being told. I plan on doing TPR with these words a day before I actually tell the story (and they're high frequency, so I'll be using them anyway) and then reviewing right before the story to help prevent students getting mentally exhausted. I really want them to focus on enjoying the story when I tell it.

Prior to telling the story, I briefly discuss the title, setting, main characters, and basic conflict to students in English. This was an explicit recommendation from my ELA colleague. Not only does it build anticipation for what the story is about, but it scaffolds the story for students who might have more difficulty with listening comprehension (in general, not just in their second language). When students have a general idea of what they're listening for and what the story is generally about, I believe they're able to feel more confident (and therefore motivated) about understanding the story as well as hone in on important details without getting caught up on what they might be a little confused about. Remember, we're mainly talking about those kids that really, really struggle with reading and listening comprehension here no matter what language it's in.

Some students will benefit from graphic organizers for various reasons. This was another explicit recommendation from my ELA colleague. Some students who struggle with listening comprehension will benefit from having a concrete item to keep track of what they're comprehending and how it fits together. Other students simply feel better having it. As long as it doesn't interfere with comprehending the story, why should I deny them this resource? Of course, that means I need to be REALLY clear about what the graphic organizer is for and what I expect them to do because putting a paper in students' hands may lead them to treat the story like traditional school and focus on mastery rather than simply comprehending and enjoying the story. Here is my STORY graphic organizer that I use, inspired by this one developed for fiction story texts in ELA. I plan on telling students that comprehending and enjoying is the goal, so eventually I would like to help everyone get to the point that they don't need the graphic organizer. However, it's there just in case you feel like you need it. If you're understanding the story just fine, though, leave it alone. I will probably show students the reaction questions (below) so they know how they're being "evaluated" - or rather, how they're evaluating me and the story. I should note, too, that I plan on handing this out to everyone before the story in order to avoid calling attention to students who need it to help them follow the story. (An added benefit of using this particular graphic organizer is that it was inspired by ELA fiction text structure organizers, so you can check off the "Connections" standard box for the day!).

Next, I tell the story! For my novice and beginner stories, I divide my board up into squares that match the reading (below) and draw each scene in the square that corresponds with the reading. Like Dr. Mason, I write the Spanish and English on the board, but erase the English immediately and just leave the Spanish. Also like Dr. Mason, I elaborate and add details as needed to reinforce an illustrate the ideas - you will see this best by comparing the video of me telling the story to the reading afterward. The basic idea is that you communicate the same idea a number of ways, giving students more opportunities to understand what is happening while also providing rich and varied input. I draw my pictures (mine aren't very good, but they get the job done) and do a lot of acting with my body to illustrate what I am telling students. One of my own adaptations is the idea of "recycling", from TPRS, where I retell the entire story up to the current moment at certain points (where those points are depend on the story and the class). I may also ask for a thumbs up or down midway through to make sure I'm being comprehensible - sometimes I think I am but I'm not, so this gives me a chance to reset and salvage the story if needed. As I get more confident in my SL skills, I may eliminate this check.

Immediately after the story, I have students write a reaction. Their reaction is very open and could be any of the following - this year, I'm going to as for a one-paragraph response (5 sentences) and let my students choose which question(s) they want to respond to based on their experience: What was your favorite part of the story? What is something you would change about the story? What would you add to the story? What is something that helped you understand the story? What is something that made it hard to understand the story? (I may add/change this list over time). This is a quick exit ticket and achieves a few things: First, it gives me a quick glimpse into how I did. Thoughtful responses to the first three questions show me that students comprehended the story enough to evaluate it. That's pretty high up there on Bloom's taxonomy and shows evidence of higher level thinking. If students are answering these questions well, then we're doing great! The last two questions explicitly give students the opportunity to tell me what I'm doing well or need to improve on. If these are the questions that resonate with students, particularly if there's something that made it hard to understand the story, I know that I need to make some adjustments and even have some recommendations on what those adjustments should be. Finally, I am going to ask students to rate the story itself on a scale of 1-5. Was it one they enjoyed? Should I tell more stories like this? Should I use it for future students? Assuming students understood the story, this will help me know which types of stories resonate with particular classes and assist me in choosing future stories.

Then, I'm going to let the story rest for a day. A friend of mine is using the Waldorf method for homeschooling her children, which also uses story methods, and told me about how the method emphasizes incubation. Tell a story, and then let it sit and process for a day or two. From my own education and experience, this makes a lot of sense and has a lot of other benefits - by just telling the story, students can focus on enjoying it and not having to worry about what they're going to do with it later. It also gives me a chance to repeat the story and show students what they did learn. Finally, it ultimately gives me more time to work with a story since we're doing it in shorter chunks spread out over time. My plan this year is to let the story rest and move on to something else after completing the above steps. Then, a day or two later, I will put up our visual of the story (don't forget to take a picture of your board! This is a student job in my class) and retell it in a simple, straightforward way while pointing to the images students are already familiar with (I'm a big believer in using the same pictures for this particular retell, even if better ones are available. It will help students recall the details better since they're associated with those particular images). After retelling the story, I'll have students do a verbal retell in English (particularly helpful if a student was gone during the original story). Then, we can move to reading the story. I use a this format for reading so that students can connect what they're reading with the images we drew on the board. It also allows me to use the boxes for a variety of activities - what do I want students to put in the boxes - drawings, text, or...? Also, we can cut these apart and use them for ordering and matching activities.

At this point, I can do whatever activities I would typically do with a One Word Image, Super Mini Story, or a TPRS story. Are we going to act it out? Read it? How? There are so many options here, and what we do will depend on the individual class and story. But, now we've got a new resource!

Must teachers be 100% comprehensible? Is there room for noise? And, if so, what amount or type of noise is acceptable?

First, here are a few comments from this article, The Case for Non-Targeted Input (Krashen, 2013)

"For an item of grammar to be acquired, the language acquirer must be ready to acquire the item. It must, in other words, be at the acquirers' i+1, where i = aspects of grammar that were most recently acquired."

"An important corollary of the Comprehension Hypothesis is the "Net" Hypothesis: Given enough comprehensible input, i+1, all the vocabulary and structures the student is ready for, is automatically provided. In Krashen and Terrell (1983) this was referred to as the Net: "When someone talks to you in a language you have not yet completely acquired so that you understand what is said, the speaker "casts a net" of structure around your current level of competence, your "i". This net will include many instances of i+1, aspects of language you are ready to acquire" (p. 33)."

"Ray and Seely (2008) emphasize the importance of translation because they feel that students must understand every word of what is said in class and what they read. As noted earlier, this may indeed be very helpful at the very beginning, but the transparency requirement should give way to the requirement that students feel that they are understanding everything. If only the feeling of full comprehension is required, if input is allowed to contain some i+n, we are no longer restricted to translation as a means of making input comprehensible. We are free to use pictures and realia, as emphasized in Natural Approach (see also comments by Carol Gaab in Ray and Seely, p. 235), as well as other means of making input comprehensible that do not obviously provide a one-to-one mapping from form to meaning (e.g. background readings that provide a general context for a story). If, in fact, the input is truly compelling, it is likely that students will not even notice the "noise" or bits of incomprehensible and nontransparent elements in the input."

I believe there is a difference between "total translatability" and "total comprehensibility" (I dislike the word "transparency" because I think it is confusing and could apply to either case).

Total translatability - students have a one-to-one connection for each and every word. This limits what you can communicate to students as well as the intention of communicating it: the emphasis is on learning forms, not on understanding messages.

Total comprehensibility - I'm beginning to think that acceptable "noise" does not come in the form of incomprehensibility, but rather that the meaning of words that would be incomprehensible on their own are made clear through other methods. For instance, when Diane Neubauer told us the story about the Zodiac, there was a part where the rat jumped over the ox's head. Had she focused on us understanding the words in that part of the story, it would have been overwhelming as well as disrupted the flow of the story - we were right at the climax and focused on what was happening, so it would have been much less compelling (not to mention out of bounds) to sit and focus on the somewhat more-complex language involved in communicating that idea. However, we completely comprehended that very critical part and kept the "flow" of the language going thanks to her gestures. We learned plenty in the process - and she could still use that story for valuable input (as opposed to being "barred" from an otherwise comprehensible story because a key part would have been "out of bounds"). This still counts as noise, however, because I didn't make any connections with the actual target language and couldn't have told you what the words were, even just after hearing her say them. And, frankly, I didn't care - I understood the message and wanted to hear the rest of the story! They key is that the message was, in fact, 100% comprehensible even if it did include noise, which was important because it lowered my affective filter and kept me in "flow". In other words, I didn't get stressed about trying to achieve a deeper level of comprehension than I was ready for nor was I stressed that there were details I was missing, because I felt confident that I had comprehended the entire message.

With regard to i+1 - there have been a few that say if everything is "100% comprehensible", then it is not providing the "+1". However, this position confuses what is acquired with what can be understood. It is important to understand that "i" is NOT what can be understood - it is what is already acquired, meaning that it can be used by the student. The "+1" is the language that is not yet acquired but can be understood (and therefore has the potential to be acquired). This area of "+1" is very broad and flexible as it contains all of the language that can be made comprehensible. For instance, novice students who have never been exposed to the target language before, have zero "i"; thus, the entire first lesson (or series of lessons) are all within the "+1" range. As students acquire "i" from the "+1" input, their ability to comprehend additional "+1" expands, although much of the language that was "+1" will remain "+1". This is why I agree with Krashen (2013) that non-targeted language is ideal for differentiation - students convert the "+1" into "i" at different rates according to the natural order, but as long as students are provided with a "Net" of language that includes "+1" for all students, all students will be able to continue acquiring the language they are ready for at their own pace .

With regard to noise, I don't think that "noise" can be acquired - the grammar and vocabulary from the language used MUST be made comprehensible before acquisition of that particular form can occur. In my above example with the Zodiac story, I had no chance of acquiring the structure for "jump over" because I never really even wrapped my head around the target language words in the first place. However, that was not a bad thing - in fact, it enabled Diane to tell a compelling story while staying "in bounds" and keeping the affective filter low. I believe that teachers need to skillfully judge and plan how they will tell a story knowing that the majority should be comprehensible at an level which students can acquire it, but be able to bridge these sections with tiny bits of comprehensible noise (if that makes sense) in order to make up for bits of language that might be beyond the "+1" level yet are still necessary to be compelling.

So, to answer my initial questions:YES, teachers MUST be 100% comprehensible - meaning that students feel that they are comprehending everything. Some misunderstandings will occur - that's fine. That is part of language development and their understandings will become refined as they receive more input (also noted in Krashen, 2013). This keeps the affective filter low as students become comfortable and confident about comprehending messages, forgetting to focus on individual words and whether they can translate them.YES, there is room for noise, but it must be comprehensible noise that is strategically used only when necessary. In other words, the messages must remain comprehensible even if the language is not. Moreover, teachers need to use their best judgement in order to maximize the amount of "+1" at a level that is possible for students to acquire. Yet, they should not feel constrained to only providing input that is at the "+1" level - comprehensible noise can be used as a tool to help students access input opportunities that might be otherwise compelling and comprehensible for students.

Someone recently asked about how much time I plan my lessons, especially now that I'm working to differentiate for my classes. While it may look like a lot of work, my lesson planning is even easier and more enjoyable than ever before. Here's what I do:

Step 1: Select contexts and strategies for providing compelling CIWhat will my stuents find compelling? I use a variety of contexts for authentic and compelling input for my students. I emphasize auditory input, with the "critical input" activities followed by reading what students heard. Here are a few examples of contexts, although this is by no means exhaustive:

Morning news and agenda - We talk about the date, the agenda, the weather, and calendar events (no reading)

Comprehensible Comics - I show a comic and describe what is happening in each scene as well as make any dialogue comprehensible (followed by listening and reading OR listening and looking at the comic as well as a formative self-evaluation for student comprehension)

Story Listening - If you're not familiar with this activity, please see my other more-comprehensive posts about what this entails (followed by reading, formative self-evaluation of comprehension, and "interaction" with the text using a menu of activities)

Co-Creation - I use this to refer to the variety of methods from TPRS and Ben Slavic which involve creating a character, siuation, or story (often followed by write and discuss and reading)

Personalized Questioning and Answering (PQA) - Essentially, using the target language to interview and talk about students. Please research the particular skills and routines associated with this if you're not already familiar with them. (not usually followed by reading)

Structured Reading and Discussion - This refers to a variety of strategies used to read and re-read a text, including discussion and listening. I recommend looking at Ben Slavic's Big CI Book.

Free Reading - Students self-select reading materials based on level and interest.

I have a distict "flow" to my class, so this is a sort of "drag and drop" activity for me and takes only about 10-15 minutes to arrange into a weekly outline. I might adjust it from there, but this is my "weekly planning".

Step 2: Select the language that will be used and how you will make it comprehensibleWhat will you talk about and how? What do you need to do to "stay in bounds," or in other words ensure that students can comprehend what you are saying and not get overwhelemed or oversaturated? This involves identifying:

Words that students already know and can be readily and easily used

Words that are familiar but not yet known - these require context or other cues for meaning

New or tricky words - these will require the highest level of support

"Noise" words - words you might use but that students don't need to necessarily know or even be aware of to understand the message. These words do not go on the board nor are they intentionally repeated or used in a way that expects students to understand them (assuming you've made meaning clear another way). For instance, you might "gloss" over a part of the story where you can make meaning clear through drawings or gestures, but where a focus on understanding the auditory input might push students beyond the i+1 level or oversaturate them. This also provides differentiation for students who might already understand the "core" auditory input and be ready to acquire the "in between" or "extra" words. After providing the input and assessment may wish to provide a list of these words to students who desire them.

For teachers new to the profession or new to CI, this might be the most difficult step as you get to know where the i+1 level is for your students, what language will work, and what language won't. However, once you're comfortable with this, it's simply a matter of rehearsing in your head or writing down what you plan to say. For me, this involves writing up a quick reading for things like Comprehensible Comics or Story Listening using the language I feel will be at the i+1 level, which can be planned ahead of time. If I have multiple levels, I simply copy and paste and then revise/add/delete the language to match the proficiency level of my other classes. For my students who I need differentiation (which I'm mainly just doing for Story Listening), I copy and paste the reading onto a new graphic organizer and then delete all but the key words they need to know and write the English translations. Next, I copy and paste those words into a Quizlet flashcard set (the beauty is that these growing pains are only temporary and you can re-use these free resources next year).

When I get to class, I pick word cards that correspond with the story to guide me and to show to my students as I provide input (these are like my verb word wall, but in GIANT magnetic form with Spanish on one side and Spanish/English on the other). For more organic activities, I just have an idea of what language I might use to facilitate the conversation and then adjust the conversation and make it comprehensible as appropriate during class. This does require skill to think on-the-spot about what will be "in" and "out" of bounds, and what you will do with that language. For this reason, I feel that Story Listening, Comprehensible Comics, and other pre-planned activities are easier for new CI teachers.

Step 3: Determine how you will check for comprehensionThis can be done a variety of ways, although the teacher must be careful not to raise the affective filter and make students anxious or feel put-on-the-spot. I use a variety of methods, and they differ based on the activity.

Signals - Students are expected to signal me, either with a red card or a time-out sign, if I've confused them. I make sure they know that it's the message that's important, not individual words. However, if they get "lost", then it's time to signal me so that I can do my job better (my job is to make the language comprehensible for them).

Questioning - This could be circling or another type of comprehension check. I do not use extensive questioning during stories, if at all, because it disrupts the flow of the story (the exception is when I ask a "natural" question that fits with the telling of the story, such as those a kindergarten teacher might ask when reading out loud to her students). However, during interactive activities such as PQA or even finding out what students think about the weather, I circle and compare responses as long as it is still compelling.

Body Language and Authentic Responses - this is a much more subtle way to check comprehension and I encourage newer teachers to have a "back up" of some sort to get a second meansure. However, body language and the ways students respond to information they understand can often communicate comprehension clearly, especially with smaller groups where the teacher is able to pay attention to the behaviors of all of the students. TPR gestures can also communicate comprehension.

Translation, summary, or other reaction to information - I use this at "checkpoint" moments in order to make sure everyone is at the same point. For instance, at natural transition points in the story, I may ask for a volunteer to summarize what has happened so far. This lets me know how I'm doing making information comprehensible AND it makes sure that everyone is up-to-speed to the current point and can continue comprehending. I might also ask for a ticket-out the door which summarizes or responds to the story in some way (What was your favorite part? Which part would you change, why, and how? etc.) Finally, I usually only use translation when reading, in which case we might orally translate as a class.

Formative Feedback - This is where I get most of my data. Students simply indicate how much they understood. They do this either through a single-digit score out of four points (4 = understood nearly everything, 3 = most, 2 = half, 1 = less than half) and/or by highlighting the text that they understand as I read it aloud to them. I use this information to measure how well I did to make language comprehensible as well as to identify my struggling students.

For me, these are tied directly to my "comfort zone" and style, so there is little preparation beyond the initial student-training and communicating expectations to students.

Step 4: Determine whether a grade will be attached to an activity, why, and howThis is where each teacher will have to determine what fits with their philosophy, goals, and program. I've changed my grading system three times this year alone, but I do feel that the most recent system might stick because it's easy and authentic. I grade anything that is formative as a completion grade - these make up 50% of their overall grade. Students are letting me know how well I am doing my job - it's my 50%, so as long as they let me know how I did, they get the grade. The other 50% is based on their behaviors aligned with my expectations for them, since those behaviors will lead to acquisition. Because I have pretty clear routines in my class and pre-made forms, this requires no extra preparation beyond printing copies of resources.​

That's it! As long as I'm not trying anything new (or blogging about it!), it usually only takes me about 15-30 minutes to plan for all of my classes each day. I take about 15 minutes to plan my weekly outline ahead of time. Then, all that is left to do during the week is picking language to use and writing up the reading and any related materials. Assuming I already have a story, comic, or other context in ind, this takes about another 15-30 minutes to create the resources and differentiate them by class level and student need.

To be completely honest, what takes much more time is finding stories and other contexts to talk about, especially for Story Listening. Selecting the right context and/or story means becoming familiar with many stories and how they might be both compelling and comprehensible for your students. However, this is becoming easier and easier as I build a bank of resources (such as this, this, or this, with more listed here) and listen to stories other teachers are telling. One of my best stories was one I learned as a student of Chinese Story Listening!

I have some students in my regular class (about 40 hours of instruction so far) who are VERY low - as in, out of thirty students, all but three will highlight that at least 95% of the story (indicating they understand it when we read it), and three will highlight about 10% of the story. When I've spoken to their other teachers, they struggle with focusing their attention and retaining information in their regular classes as well. Many of them have low English reading skills and/or low motivation. In any case, I just haven't reached them yet the way I would like to and I'm afraid they're getting left behind by the rest of the class.

This month, my "professional goal" is to meet these kids where they need me. Here are a few of the ideas I've come up with, but I'm also curious to hear your thoughts.

One strategy I'm experimenting is by using the videos of my instruction. Not only am I recording their stories from class and putting them on my YouTube channel (my kids think having a YouTube channel is so cool haha), but I'm also including the reading and a carefully chosen set of Quizlet flash cards that parents/students can practice.

In addition, I just started teaching novice students (0 hours of previous instruction) and am telling them a novice version of the stories ahead of telling my regular class their more intermediate version. I'm encouraging students who might want/need some extra practice and support to pre-listen to these easier versions of the story to understand the basic problem, characters, storyline, and vocabulary that they'll hear in their in-class version of the story (on the condition that they'll still pay attention when I tell it and won't spoil the story for others). These include the reading and flash cards as well. My hope is that by scaffolding the story this way, they'll increase their comprehension level, get more meaningful input, and I will still be able to tell the more difficult versions of the stories that the rest of the class is ready for.

Here are some other ideas that one of our excellent ELA/SPED teachers suggested after I described Story Listening to her (I'm still processing whether and how I would use them; these could be whole-group or small group) - she pointed out that typical students need 40 or more exposures to something to understand it and use it in a new way; students with learning challenges or exceptional needs can need twice that exposure to comprehend. Thus, these activities are aimed toward increasing that exposure in order to comprehend words in new contexts (PLEASE NOTE - I know that these do not lead to acquisition. Acquisition isn't my goal; rather, I would be using these strategies to increase comprehension of the input so that the stories are more comprehensible and effective for acquisition - perhaps think of these as "practical preliminary steps" in order to provide quality CI for all of my students given the particular challenges and demands of teaching in K-12 public schools) :

Interventions for students who are not comprehending the stories in the first place:

TPR (whole group): I already do this, but making more intentional effort; my students also report that this is one of the things that helps them the most

Signals (whole group): Something I already do, but I will continue training students to use signals to let me know when they are confused.

"Preview" the story by going over the main characters, setting, conflict, and key vocabulary with the small group (Not the resolution, so students are still intrested in listening to get the details and find out what happens; Of course, students who watch the novice videos beforehand would have most of his information but this might be a fail-safe for students who don't watch them)

Pre-teach the key vocabulary - I would emphasize that the point is to use the words to understand the story better, NOT the other way around, i.e. telling a story to learn the words

Provide a Graphic organizer with the key vocab to use as a reference during the story (perhaps organizing the words into boxes that will go along with the images and "scenes" I'm drawing? I might be able to provide basic images as well that wouldn't give away the story, but help students make connections as they hear the story and watch me draw) --> They should NOT be writing on this during the story, but rather using it as a reference (Here is an example that I made and want to try out for our story next week)

After the story, have the whole class re-tell and sequence the main steps (in L1) and have the struggling students put this information into their graphic organizer.

Provide flash cards with key vocabulary (I'm doing this with the videos as noted above)

Video the story for review (I'm doing this now!)

Play games with they key vocabulary (not my favorite, but maybe something to do on a special "fun" day, like the Word Chunk Team Game or a game where students try to come up with the funniest/weirdest/saddest sentence using the verb)

Interventions for students who are understanding the story, but are not transferring what they hear to what they read, whether in context or when applying to new contexts (in addition to providing more auditory input):

Have students who are struggling to read (and often struggling to pick appropriate reading materials) read with me in a small group until they show they are able to select and understand materials with ease.

Students keep a small notebook to create their own dictionary of words to practice (a Montessori approach)

When creating the personal dictionary, I help students write a sentence in a new way/context than the original use.

I think I will explore using the graphic organizer and pre-teaching in the coming weeks, although I will have to re-arrange my class activities to do small groups. As a secondary teacher, this seems a bit daunting - but I have to give it the good ol' college try! If I can pull it off and my students are able to comprehend (and therefore acquire) more, then it's absolutely worth it.

My friend did Story Listening for her VERY FIRST lesson ever! She's not even in front of kids yet - this was for the other future teachers in her class and is designed to be a 15-minute "sample". Here's how we developed her lesson:

First, she watched my Story Listening session (the one about the volcanoes). Then, she picked a story she thought would be interesting to tell, a Curious Georgebook. She thought about how to tell the story in comprehensible Spanish. Then, we simplified it to be as easy as possible. After narrowing down the story to a single problem and a single way to solve the problem, we also adjusted the story to make use of as many proper nouns and cognates as possible. This story is the result.

"George is a monkey. George is curious. George sees a mouse. George touches the mouse. The mouse escapes. He doesn't see the mouse. It is a problem. He goes to _____. He doesn't see the mouse. It's a problem. He goes to ______. He doesnt see the mouse. He sees the mouse in ______. It is not a problem. It is perfect. The end."

The underlined words are the words she's going to pause and do TPR with in context of the story ("show me _____.") - this is something I added in in my most recent story ("El escape cubano") as well to help me slow down even more and make sure my students are with me as well as getting key words. I found it to be very helpful.

Then, in order to do Story Listening, she planned out what she would say and how she would illustrate it on the board. In essence, this is her "lesson plan" that she's going to use to remember what to tell the "students", where to pause and do TPR, how to illustrate the story in a comprehensible way. Finally, she's going to have the students read and translate copies of this paper.

I wanted to share this (with her permission) because A) she rocks my socks and is going to be an AWESOME teacher, B) look, we're getting more fresh CI teachers!, and c) I thought it might be helpful to use as a model for getting started in CI with minimal (in this case zero) teaching experience. I'm hoping this is simple and easy enough that a novice teacher could walk in and confidently teach through CI!

As the name of this post suggests, this is another step on a journey that started long before this post. It may be helpful to review the following posts before reading this one in order to contextualize what I'm about to write:

Good News for my Students - My realization that students should not be held accountable for what they learn or what proficiency they achieve, but rather their behaviors that lead to learning.

Structure of my Class - See this post to get a better idea of the activities we do and how I organize instruction and assessment.

As I reflect on all that I've learned during our first trimester, I find myself compelled, yet again, to change the grading system. I was using an Interpersonal Mode rubric adapted from Ben Slavic which fit the needs of co-creating with the class (One Word Images, Ask A Story, Etc.) very well. However, with my recent transition to primarily Story Listening, the Interpersonal Mode rubric no longer fits the behaviors I expect of my students since they now have new roles for engagement. Moreover, there are things missing from that rubric that I want students to be doing, especially since so much of our class time is now spent reading.

The bottom line is that grades should be meaningful, and what I was doing no longer fits what I wish to communicate to parents and students. So, something has got to change.

What would be meaningful and fair to communicate?Before I even begin to think about setting up my gradebook, assigning tasks, and grading them, I must be able to answer this question. The meaningful part concerns what I need to communicate to parents. How should they interpret the grades that their students receive? The fair part of this question concerns what students can control - and, as I've explained in the two posts linked at the beginning of this post, I do not view assessing what students can do in the language (i.e. proficiency or tasks) as fair and I have to honor that when assigning their grades (soap box moment: whether or not I agree with it, these grades do influence their quality of life based on how they and their parents feel about them! Not to mention that high school grades will affect college acceptances and scholarships. For those reasons, I take assigning them very, very seriously).

For my class, I've determined that Student Behaviors (Citizenship) and Completion of Assignments (Classwork/Assignments) are fair and meaningful to communicate:. To be honest, completion of assignments can be categorized under student behaviors, but there is some sort of satisfaction when students see a direct connection between the tasks the complete in class and what shows up in the gradebook. However, in honoring what is fair to assess, these daily tasks are formative assessments of my instruction and students receive an automatic 100% just for completing them. It feels great to them to get these regular 100% grades in the grade book, and it ensures that students can communicate openly with me about how well I am reaching them while only being graded on what they can control.

How does this look in the gradebook?Although it may be somewhat arbitrary, I decided to give each of the categories (Classwork/Assignments and Citizenship) equal weight in the gradebook. The categories are broad enough that I can include everything we do. I've always preferred to use weights as I feel they give me more accurate control over my gradebook, but that is just a personal preference.

Classwork/Assignments (50%): These are the grades assigned for individual tasks completed. These include the Listening Reflection Sheets that we do after auditory input as well as any summaries or responses to what students have read, which are all graded on completion only and used for my own feedback on instruction and activities to inform future decisions. It's also flexible enough to inlude any other assignments students have, such as projects or the syllabus signature, etc.

Citizenship (50%): These grades are based on student self-evaluation of their behaviors in class which facilitate (or inhibit) language acquisition. This is the category that students are held accountable for and communicate my expectations for them. I created a new self-reflection sheet that better communicates my expectations and allows students to accurately reflect on how well they met these expectations (The first page is for when students are still doing structured reading as a class; the second page is for when students progress to Free Reading, although it still accounts for students who choose to work with me in a small group). This reflection sheet is more complete and will take more time than my previous reflection sheets, so I plan to use it about once every other week (keeping in mind that I see my kids every other day - If I saw them daily, I'd probably have them complete this every week). However, I plan to display a poster of the rubric so that students can be reminded of my expectations throughout the week. I plan to allow students assign "in between" scores (1 and 3) if they feel that best represents their behavior. I also like having the points out of 50 because it makes it easy for students to know "what they got" by doubling the score. Of course, that's just personal preference.

Because this approach is likely unfamiliar to parents and students, I plan to send a letter explaining how students are graded and how to interpret those grades. I also plan to review their proficiency assessments in their notebooks and touch base with the parents of students who are struggling in their proficiency so that they have a complete picture of their students' performance and how they can support them, while still maintaining fairness in the grade book. Once I write that email, I will link to it here.

As our first trimester comes to a close, I'm thinking about where we are now and how we got here in the course of three months. It's been an interesting evolution. And, of course, I'm thinking about how to sequence my instruction next year (and in my additional classes which will start in January) in order to help scaffold and guide student success even more. Here are my current thoughts, taking into account that I teach Spanish to my middle school students 2-3 times each week for 70 minutes each time. Non-cognate languages and language that are not phonetic will likely require this timeline to be stretched out. For a flow-chart which explains how I structure my class, please see the flow-chart to the right (click for larger view) and this blog post.

Beginning of the year:

Auditory Input: Begin with mostly Circling Kids, PQA, TPR, One Word Images, and a song or two.

Structured/Contextualized Reading: Throughout the year, unfamiliar words are written on the board and pointed to every time I use them. The topics we discuss are documented and used as the reading material (I like Tina Hargaden's idea of "Write and Discuss" in order to document the information with my students). We do lots of structured whole-class reading activities with these materials to build up student success in reading. And, of course, all of this reading is highly contextualized as it is explicitly connected to what we have already discussed.

Contextualized Formative Assessment: Self evaluation of active listening and reading behaviors. This will help me "norm" the class to what I expect from them when they are listening and reading.

A few weeks in:

Auditory Input: Continue with the above activities, but add in Story Listening for 10-15 minutes once or twice per week. One Word Images will likely also extend into mini-stories naturally.

Structured/Contextualized Reading: Continue the above whole-class reading activities with texts that are directly connected with the auditory input.

Contextualized Formative Assessment: Continue with self-evaluations of active listening and reading behaviors in order to "norm" the class. I may ask for an occasional summary or response in L1.

After the first month or two:

Auditory Input: Focus mainly on stories that are increasing in length and complexity, balancing Story Asking with Story Listening and adjusting based on the needs of the students and myself. These can be supplemented with other CI activities.

Structured/Contextualized Reading: Begin differentiating for students by providing opportunities for students to select level and format of structured reading. The reading is still connected to the auditory input, but students can select different levels of the reading (embedded readings), which may include new vocabulary or more complex ideas and details. Low students work in a small group with me starting with the easiest version of the text while middle and advanced students self-select their level and if they would like to read alone or in pairs.

Contextualized Formative Assessment: Students self-evaluate their listening and summarize or respond in L1 to the reading.

Formative Proficiency Assessment: After the first six weeks, I may do a formative listening and/or reading proficiency assessment to see where students are at and determine which students I need to focus on to make input comprehensible (these are also the students I need to identify as a subgroup for my WA State-mandated student growth goals).

Structured/Contextualize Reading AND Application to Novel contexts through FVR: Further differentiate reading by introducing FVR. Low students work in pairs to read embedded materials directly connected to the auditory input. Middle and high students can select from embedded reading materials or materials from the FVR library. They can also select to read in small groups (up to three people) or independently.

Contextualized Formative Assessment: Students self-evaluate their listening and may summarize or respond in L1. Explicit assessment of reading may or may not occur. If students can be observed reading successfully, no other assessment is necessary.

Formative Proficiency Assessment: I continue doing reading and/or listening proficiency assessments every 2-3 weeks (they only take about 10 minutes). I do the first free write (I do a 1-3-10 write) at the end of our first trimester (3 months). This gives me a baseline for what students have acquired so far and is intended to measure growth.

Month Four and Beyond?This is where I am now. How to proceed? My current plans are to continue doing the plan for months 3-4 until all of my students are able to engage in FVR successfully with partners, and then proceed to where everyone can engage in Silent and Sustained FVR. Right now, I have only a handful of kids reading independently. Of course, many of my students who could read independently are helping their friends in small groups. They are working very productively and it's a beautiful thing when my administrator (or anyone else) walks down the hall (we spread out since it can get loud with everyone in the classroom) and asks me "Are they reading novels in Spanish?!" I'm so proud of them! However, I know that I didn't scaffold the reading enough this year for some students (It was my first year doing this and I now see the need for a well-thought out and differentiated transition, which I included in the plan above), so I'm going to take a step back and provide more structured and contextualized reading for those few students who still aren't ready for FVR. My hope is to have everyone successfully engaged in SSR by the end of the year while I continue to provide whole-class auditory input through Story Listening or other methods.

This blog post is in respont to questions from other teachers and was originally posted on my Facebook page:

What does your lesson cycle look like? What are your objectives?This is what a "unit" looks like for me and it can apply to any CI class - please look at my instructional flow chart first to see a summary and then read the rest of this post for my application of these segments (click the picture to go to the original Google Doc).

I use this template for nearly everything and I start with a fresh "unit" or cycle every week. Keep in mind that this is NOT a rigid template - I change and adapt it to fit my students' needs, always prioritizing CI instruction (Stage 1, Stage 2, and FVR in Stage 4 when students are ready). I teach I the block, so I only see my kids 2-3 times each week for 70 minutes each time. As for objectives, I pretty much use the same objectives every week. I was trained to use measurable objectives, so that's reflected in how I write mine. I always ask "How will I know that they met the objective?" when I write it. We also discuss the objective and agenda in Spanish every day ("El objetivo de hoy es ________. Primero, vamos a _____. Segundo, vamos a ____." etc.). At my old school, we also had to write essential questions. My essential question is always the same: "How do I navigate meaning and communicate my ideas in Spanish?" I figure that's the essential goal of every class period, unit, and course. Students learn more language and are able to comprehend and communicate more complex ideas, but the goal/essential question is always the same.​Auditory Input - Story Listening (for now). There are a plethora of ways to get auditory input. For instance, I started the year with a lot of One Word Images and Ask a Story.**OBJECTIVE: "Listen to a story in Spanish and write a summary." This is actually extremely flexible and we summarize the story in different ways using my reflection sheet. Sometimes I have students summarize the whole story, but other times I ask them to summarize based on a prompt such as only summarizing their favorite part of the story, summarize a part of the story you have a question about and then write your question, etc. I'm sure we could think of many more prompts that would "summarize" the story in some way and demonstrate comprehension through authentic responses from students. They always get 100% for this as long as they do it - the important part is that they know they have accomplished they day's goal and I have tangible evidence/data for how well each student accomplished the goal in order to inform my future instructional decisions.

Structured Reading and/or Contextualized Reading We started the year with a lot of this. However, many of my students are independent readers or are able to read with a partner now, so I'm skipping this step right now. I'm thinking I'll add it back in, though, because I think my students need a little more reinforcement of the language.**OBJECTIVE: "Read a story in Spanish." Again, I write this in a very flexible way in order to adapt it to my students' needs although the objective is always the same: Read. I ask myself "How will I know they comprehended what they read?" Each class and even each student has a different answer to this question, but it's always observable. Are the students talking about what they're reading with someone else? Are they translating out loud with a partner? Are you observing how their eyes and fingers track across the page and turn pages appropriately? Are they selecting materials based on reading level and interest? Perhaps you are doing a structured activity in which everyone is demonstrating comprehension the same way, or, if your students are already reading independently, perhaps each student is demonstrating their comprehension in a different way. Whatever the case, they're reading and meeting the objective!

Contextualized Assessment I use my reflection sheet for this. Students do three things. First they re-listen to a 2-minute version of the story and "grade me" on how well I made the story comprehensible for them based on our Interpretive Mode rubric. Then, they follow along as I read the story and highlight/cross off everything they understood. Finally, they summarize the story in some way. I use all of these as indicators of MY performance and how well I made the story comprehensible, then make adjustments in my Story Listening techniques to improve comprehensibility and instruction. For instance, if everyone is at a 3.5 or 4, I probably need to step it up. If everyone is at a 2-3, I probably need to simplify the language I'm using, go slower, and/or pay better attention to my students as I'm telling the story. I can also see from what they didn't highlight the words they're still struggling with to comprehend. Finally, I can look for trends in student performance and identify my high and low students on a weekly basis and work on differentiating for them.**OBJECTIVE: This is usually some way to measure how students met the objectives for "Auditory Input" and "Structured Reading", so I do not write an objective specific to contextualized assessment.

ApplicationRight now, I am doing Free voluntary Reading (FVR) for this step and plan to do so for the foreseeable future. Language students cannot ever have enough FVR!**OBJECTIVE: See "Structured Reading".

AssessmentStudents can use their FVR time to do our benchmark reading assessments, but I set aside time specifically for them about once every 2-3 weeks. We do a writing assessment once every 6 weeks. Students self-evaluate and know that they will not be penalized for what they do - I am completely transparent with them and tell them this is for us to track their growth and to help me be a better teacher by seeing what's in their brains and making sure I meet them halfway. If any grades go into the gradebook based on these, they're always 100% for completion. Students and I use these as an overall measure of proficiency to track student progress over time and I get some good insights into what I need to do for individual students as well as how they are coming along in general.**OBJECTIVE: "Evaluate my _______ proficiency." All of my evaluations are graded on completion. I do provide my rubrics and students self-evaluate their reading and writing (in the future, we will add listening. Eventually, I want to add speaking for my advanced students). They know that no matter what they score, they get 100% in the grade book. I am completely transparent with them that their score is just a way to track progress over time and to help me know what's going on so I can teach them better - and I honor that commitment. Of course, that means I have some explaining and educating to do with parents since most people equate ability with grades, but my students know that as long as they give me their best, their grade will be at least a B if not an A.

Everything ElseThere are LOTS of other CI activities to choose from than the ones I've listed above or even in the flow chart (note the "More?" in all but the last segment). If we need some variety, I select from a menu of CI activities. As long as the activity is CI, the objectives listed above should usually work or only need to be tweaked to fit. Of course, there are plenty of other things that I use to fill the time in between all of these "core" activities. Many times, those are songs - silly songs like those from SenorWooly.com, vocabulary songs for Spanish students, authentic songs, or holiday/traditional songs (right now we are working on our Christmas carols!). These are usually on the same days as the activities listed above, so I don't bother writing an objective for the "side show." Every now and then there is a day where none of the above apply (that's rare, though). These are the only days that I write the objective based on what we're doing - such as the day where the objective was "Dance the salsa."

Teachers like strategies. We keep lists of them. Nearly every teacher has owned (and likely still owns) books of strategies on top of the lists of strategies they've developed themselves that they like to use. And when we sit around a table and talk, strategies are often the topic of conversation. How did you do this or that? How did it work? How could I try it in my room?

Strategies often come in the form of a pre-packaged "method", which includes research-based approach along with clear design and procedure for using in class (Richards, 1986). In other words, research says _____ increases student learning, so we're going to do that by doing A and B, and the expected outcome is C. A "method" can form an entire curriculum or even set the context for a school (i.e. "Montessori method" or "Suzuki method").

Methods are nice - they tell teachers "we've done the research and the work to make you a tool - go take it and teach!" It allows teachers to focus on their immediate classroom needs. The trouble with teaching by methods, however, is that teachers are limited to the artificial walls created by whoever designed the method. If teachers only understand the methods and then hold themselves to the methods, two problems arise: First, they miss opportunities to meet the needs of their students which might be served by a different method that they have either rejected or are not familiar with. This leads to the second problem, where teachers modify the method in order to meet the needs of their students. However, this modification can fundamentally alter the method to a point where it is no longer achieving the goals intended. They may be achieving some goal, but it's like the game of "telephone" - the end result is often some sort of message, but it isn't the original message that was intended. While this might seem good on the surface (look! He's learning better now!), it is problematic because the "original message" was research-based and the final message received is not. Thus, we may no longer be teaching with "research-based" methods. Obviously, the researchers did not work with our kids and adjustments will always need to be made - this is why we hire professionals to lead our classrooms. So, how can we know that our real-life decisions in the classroom are really what is best for our students beyond a set methodology?

We must transcend the methods.

In other words, we need to take a step back and ask what principles make a particular method useful, and how can we apply those principles as we adapt our instructions to the students we have in our classroom and the needs of our circumstances (including your own teaching preferences)? We need to look at the research itself and understand its implications at a deep level. It's helpful to become familiar with methods based upon the research to understand some examples of application to the classroom while still understanding that most research looks at the nuts and bolts of learning rather than prescribing certain methodologies.

Moreover, we need to use this research to evaluate every method or strategy that we might employ. This not only includes taking a critical look at any pre-designed methods, but it also breaks down those artificial walls to allow teachers to create new methods based on the needs of their students while adhering to research on student learning.

So, how do we do this?

First, we have to understand the principles established by extensive research. These are at the core of our teaching philosophy, and so each teacher must carefully research, consider, and eventually adopt the principles they feel are most appropriate for their classroom. Although we should come to some consensus about what these principles are, teachers teaching by someone else's principles that they do not fully understand and endorse will likely lead to a misapplication of the principles and ineffective teaching.In the short-term, a teacher who is only ready to teach by methods can "borrow" principles, as we implicitly do each time that we agree to use a method. Moreover, principles should be constantly reviewed and adjusted based on new learning - both in the world of research and in the teacher's own professional development.

​I am working on a post which more fully articulates the following principles that I have developed for my own instruction (second language acquisition), but here is a brief summary:​

Language acquisition and the rate at which it occurs are determined by the natural order of acquisition, internal syllabus, and the amount of quality input that students comprehend. Of these, we can only control the amount and quality of comprehensible input that students receive. Thus, a language teacher’s top priority is to maximize the amount of comprehensible, compelling, and rich input that students receive. Accordingly, my principles include the following:

Pure comprehensible input is the most effective and efficient way to learn a language.

Input must be compelling.

Input must consist of rich language.

Students must navigate meaning through interacting with the language.

Teachers must create "flow" and do their best to avoid disruptions to this flow.

A Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) program is a critical component of the language program.

​Assessment should be authentic, proficiency-based, and holistic.

Once we have these principles, we can explore, modify, and create endless methods while ensuring they are still firmly grounded in our instructional philosophies and principles. As I explore new ways to reach my students, I apply the following questions based on my established principles:

CI is most effective and efficient: What comprehensible input are students receiving? Are there any components that are not comprehensible input, such as output, grammar instruction, correction, etc.? To what degree are they used and for what function? Are they necessary? Is there a modification that could be made to increase the amount of comprehensible input? What effect will this activity have on the affective filter?

Compelling: Will this be interesting enough to my students to be compelling? Why or why not? Am I providing this input because I want to teach the students something, or am I providing this input because I know the students will be interested in it? How will I measure and respond to student interest level?

Rich Language: What language am I using and why? In what ways might I be limiting my language and why? How will I ensure that what I'm saying is comprehensible?

Navigate meaning through interaction: What behaviors will show that my students are comprehending the input? What will they do when they understand? What will they do when they don't understand? How will I measure and respond to these behaviors?

Flow: How will the lesson flow? What interruptions to flow might occur? Are there any elements of the method that will inhibit flow? What is the intent of those elements and could they be adjusted to increase flow? How will I handle those interruptions?

FVR: What are the actual effects on reading for students? How to students feel about reading during this activity? Are they more or less intrinsically motivated to engage in independent and voluntary reading? Will this eventually lead to students engaging in FVR? Why or why not?

Assessment: Is the assessment authentic or contrived? Is it based on what students can do with their proficiency with regard to comprehension and communication? Is the assessment contextualized? Are students being graded holistically or on specific skills? Does the assessment format and resulting feedback honor what students can and cannot control or influence (can: behaviors; cannot: acquisition)?

The answers to these questions give the why (or why not!) to every decision we make regarding instruction (and, yes, classroom management deserves its own list as well!). This is so empowering! So why is it not a regular practice? I am guessing that it's because teachers are fed pre-packaged methods from the time they decide to become teachers. Rather than asking new teachers to explore educational practices on a deeper level and develop and evaluate methods, we like to give them the tools to hit the ground running, and rightfully so.

Novice teachers usually do not have the experience, expertise, or even the capacity to engage in this deeper-level thinking - even educators must work their way up Bloom's Taxonomy in their practice, both in scope and in depth. They are not focused on "practice" as much as they are focused on "tomorrow" or even "next period". Their main objectives are to remember their lesson plan (which they may or may not have been able to create on their own), understand what it is they're trying to do, and applying it to the classroom. Hopefully, they able to analyze the results (this usually comes with time), and eventually begin evaluating their lessons to create new lessons that are more efficient.*

​As we learn and grow, however, not only are obligated as professionals to not only move toward the upper tiers of Bloom's taxonomy, but we must also expand the scope of our vision and begin to look at practice. Transcending the methods requires us to analyze and evaluate the practices themselves, and then effectively create new ones, both through modification and invention, that address the needs of our students and circumstances (which include the needs of the teacher!). We cannot do that unless we let go of methods and teach by principles.

*Although new teachers might not be able to effectively develop effective principles at the beginning of their career, I think it is a great shame that they are mainly trained to focus on the methods rather than looking for the principles behind them. Doing so facilitates a culture of "tunnel vision" where teachers may not even realize there is a need to eventually transcend the methods, and it takes trial and error for experienced teachers to eventually learn to do so for themselves.​References:

If you are unfamiliar with Story Listening, I recommend you visit the Story Listening page to get a general idea of what it it involves.

The primary person responsible for developing this particular methodology as well as the research behind it is Dr. Beniko Mason, who teaches English to her Japanese students exclusively through Story Listening supported by Free Voluntary Reading. I highly recommend reading this post, where Dr. Mason details Story Listening in her own words. It is worth noting that Dr. Mason is successfully using this method to teach her students to listen, read, write, and speak a non-cognate language with a different form of writing. Moreover, English is not a phonetic language, presenting additional challenges for reading and writing.

Finally, there will be those who say that this is "nothing new". Of course storytelling is not new. We've been telling stories since the beginning of human history. That in and of itself should be compelling enough information to consider using more stories in education. We are wired for language and stories. However, using it in an academic classroom with specific learning goals and timelines is a new concept, as are the specific techniques and behaviors that accompany Story Listening that Dr. Mason applied and researched extensively with a variety of students. I am excited to see this research grow as more teachers with different circumstances and students test this method in their own classrooms. Finally, using Story Listening is a new frontier for me as a teacher, as I imagine it will be for others. I share my own insights on this, as with anything else, so that teachers who might wish to explore this frontier might be able to do so productively and meaningfully.

For the last three weeks, I've been trying out Story Listening for the first time in my classes. I was struggling with the Story Asking as we would get stuck, I had trouble choosing details that kept everyone engaged, and many of my students were getting lost in the chaos or frustrated with the "flow" of the story. My "low" kids weren't understanding what was happening. My "high" kids wanted to keep moving. And my "easily distracted" kids were off in their world. I wouldn't say it was a hot mess, but it was close. The kids were learning, but I didn't feel like we were going anywhere fast and I was frustrated and exhausted. I'll readily admit that there are people more talented at "Asking a Story" than I am - but it just hasn't really ever "clicked" for me. So, after a particularly rough first period, I decided I would let myself off the hook and simply tell a story to the next class. I knew I had to pick something interesting, and the first thing that came to my mind was "La Llorona". I found a quick summary of the story online to refresh my memory, printed it out, and "told" it. Despite the minimal preparation, it was a hit! I didn't do any drawing - I just put the words they needed help with on the board with the English translation. After that, I pre-drew my pictures and vocabulary and told the story of "La Llorona" to my remaining classes with the pictures under the projector. After each class, I asked the students to show me how they felt about the activity by holding up fingers. A "3" meant they learned about the same, a "1" meant they learned a lot less, and a "5" meant they learned a lot more. Even with my minimal understanding of Story Listening and almost no practice, every student in every class rated the activity as a "4" or a "5"! I was sold! I've made a number of adjustments since that first week and would like to share my "beginners guide" to getting started with Story Listening.

First, it's very important to understand exactly what Story Listening is and is not. It is not simply storytelling. Storytelling puts the emphasis on what the teacher is doing and will likely not meet the acquisition needs of students, whereas Story Listening is focused on the person who is listening to the story and responsive to what they need. In order for story listening to be effective, the following conditions must be met:

The story chosen must be compelling. This is perhaps the most difficult part of Story Listening - accurately predicting which students will best engage students

The story chosen must be at the appropriate level. The content of the story must be easy to follow for the level of students you are telling (generally speaking, concrete, logical, and straightforward stories are easier to understand than abstract, nonsensical, and/or complex stories - silliness is perfectly fine, but it's usually easier to follow a logical train of thought and rationale for events). You must also be able to tell the story with language at the i+1 level.

The teacher must be skilled at measuring whether the story is compelling and comprehensible at all times and be able to adjust the story and their strategies for delivering it when needed in order to meet the first two conditions.

It is also helpful to understand the potential similarities and differences between Story Listening and other methods of CI Instruction. NOTE: I use the word "potential" because CI instruction can take many forms. Almost all language teachers agree that we must actually use the language for students to learn it. In some cases, this takes the form of stating sentences that the students understand. Most traditional classes use the language in order to give instructions, although this use is incidental to the "real" instruction (i.e. vocabulary, grammar, worksheets, comprehension questions, etc. taking place.) For this particular list of similarities and differences, I'm going to narrow the list to items that differ between Story Listening and other methods that are grounded in the idea that the instruction itself should be through CI and focused on meaning and proficiency rather than skills and vocabulary. Even here, however, we find a lot of variance in how teachers instruct and the strategies they use, and and almost strategy has the potential to be used similarly or differently than the strategies employed in Story Listening.

Potential Similarities

The bottom line for using CI methods (which includes many different strategies for delivering CI) is that students learn through listening to and reading the language at a comprehensible level. Story Listening addresses the "listening" aspect.

CI strategies

Story Listening and other CI methods are intended to get students listening to, processing, negotiating meaning through interaction, and enjoying the language.

CI methods must be compelling, meaning that students are so interested that they are intrinsically motivated to attend to meaning.

Story Listening and other methods are student-centered as they respond to what students find interesting and what is comprehensible to them.

Potential Differences: (many of these items overlap, so I apologize for any repetition)

Many CI methods ask for explicit, verbal feedback and interaction to measure student comprehension and/or master of the language being used. For example, teachers might "circle" a particular word until all students are able to respond accurately and confidently with little to no hesitation. While this may be helpful to some teachers and students, this is only one form of student interaction and feedback for the teacher. When doing Story Listening, teachers use primarily non-explicit forms of interaction and feedback to judge comprehension and interest, such as student body language, pre-established signals, and authentic reactions to the input (gasps, excitement, comments about the story, etc.).

Many CI Methods attempt to get students engaged and make the information compelling by including student suggestions and ideas. Story Listening gets students engaged and makes the information compelling by careful selection of a story based on its appeal to students. Often, the best stories are those that have stood the test of time and transcended generations and even cultures, such as fairy tales and legends. Once teachers know their students well, they may wish to find more modern stories or even write original stories that will interest their students.

Students are not expected to master anything in particular. They are only expected to listen and enjoy the story. Moreover, the teacher does not "teach" the story. The story is used just enough to be meaningful to students and instruction moves on before students lose interest in it. Teachers may or may not choose to reinforce what students heard by reading the story. However, these activities are viewed in the lens of providing additional compelling input and opportunities to negotiate meaning at a deeper level. Thus, just telling the story is often "enough" and teachers should avoid over-working any particular story.

Similarly, Story Listening is untargeted The stories told are not selected for any "content" value, such as vocabulary or grammatical patterns. The teacher uses rich language at the appropriate level for students to understand what is happening. The teacher may "target for meaning" (in other words, use the word just enough times to ensure that students understand what is happening), but does not continue to target anything more than needed to facilitate telling the story.

Building upon these last two points, students are not held accountable for anything in Story Listening. There is no quiz and the teacher does not assess the students with comprehension questions (although the teacher might ask an occasional question "in the moment" in order to make sure students are ready to move on to the next piece of information). Students are simply expected to listen with the intent to understand and signal to the teacher if they become confused.

Questions are asked with different intent. Some methods ask questions intended to check comprehension, get repetitions of a particular language chunk, or otherwise aimed at "teaching" students something. With Story Listening, questions asked are intended purely to clarify meaning (What does ____ mean?) or simply because it is an interesting question. There are no hidden motives - the teacher is simply communicating authentically with his or her students. As with any communication, these honest questions and responses do indicate comprehension although that is not necessarily their intent.

Story Listening uses rich language. Students are exposed to the grammar and vocabulary needed to tell the story at a comprehensible level. As students are exposed to this wide variety of language, they acquire vocabulary and grammar at their own pace along the natural order of acquisition. Thus, stories are inherently differentiated, as some students are focused on "understanding" a particular chunk of language while other students are acquiring the language at a deeper level that will eventually lead to mastery.

Story Listening is predictable for the teacher. The teacher knows what language will be used and can use if effectively. Moreover, because I know what is going to happen with the story, I can pay more attention to whether or not students are actually comprehending the story and be responsive to their needs. I imagine I am not the only teacher who has felt overwhelmed with simultaneously creating a story and ensuring that all students are comprehending the story (not to mention the other things teachers must attend to as they teach!).

Story Listening gives students more structure. Because students have clearly defined roles and know what will be happening, they are able to feel more secure in that role. Although it may not be true for all students, many of my students appreciate knowing all they have to do is listen to the story and react naturally to it (including letting me know they are confused). They don't feel pressure to speak up in order to get their ideas included in a story, to compete with other students, or to demonstrate that they comprehend. Consequently, most of my students feel more secure with Story Listening and feel that they get more out of class with the richer language and increased "flow".

"Flow", or when students are so absorbed in the experience and meaning of what is happening in class, takes top priority in Story Listening. There are fewer interruptions to the story by things like deciding on a detail, "targeting" a particular word or phrase, checking comprehension, extensive circling, etc. Instead, the story flows at a pace that maintains interest.

Finally, I'd like to touch on a few differences in my personal preference for various strategies:

I do not get tunnel vision - I can focus on my kids because I already know the story and can anticipate what my students need to make it compelling and comprehensible.

Class is calmer and more secure for my students.

I am able to provide better language, both in quantity and quality.

My students enjoy these stories more. They're happier, more interested, and have indicated that they feel they are learning more. Consequently, almost all behavior issues and student frustrations have disappeared.

It's just easier for me. We each have our own styles, and with Story Listening my voice is better, I'm not tired, and I enjoy it more.

So, if you'd like to get started with Story Listening, here are a few tips from my personal experience:

Read MANY stories - and sit on them a few days before you choose one to tell your class. Be sure to consider a wide variety of stories your students might be interested in, including content, emotional affect, themes, etc.

Know your story inside and out so that you can focus on telling it in an engaging manner and responding to your students with regard to how compelling and comprehensible your story is.

Practice telling the story - and tell it out loud until you are comfortable. What words will you use? How will you make them comprehensible? Especially for non-native teachers, are you comfortable using the language you want to tell the story with (yes, this is an opportunity for you to grow, too!)

Draw live. This slows you down and builds interest. I'm a terrible artist. My creativity lies in how to adequately illustrate a story with stick figures. I think they like my drawings better because they are *so* bad, yet they get the point across.

Plan your drawings. You can do this mentally, but at least consider what images you will draw in order to make the meaning clear. I recommend including key vocabulary with your drawings and connecting them to the images - you will also want to plan this.

Get dramatic. The kids LOVE to see adults do crazy things. I yell, beg, sing, smack items, use gestures and facial expressions. Each story is a little more dramatic than the rest. I love entertaining my kids. Like with my drawings, I'm a terrible actress - but my kids give me credit for trying. They know I'm giving them my best and putting it all on the line for them, so they really want to see me succeed and make me feel good, too.

Get student feedback about what students like. My students have started giving me "story requests" - today my students made me promise to write a story about the Chupacabra.

This is just a personal preference, but I teach my students transition words with rejoiners. For instance, I say "así que" in a certain way, often with a hand gesture (especially at the beginning) and my students are trained to respond "sooooo" in the same way that I said it in Spanish. Other words include "but", "however", "therefore", "then", "before", "after", "although", etc. Add one word at a time and train yourself to say the word the same way and use the gesture every time. Practice it a few times and then use them in your stories! This will give a little extra "flair" to your students' vocabularies, increase interaction, and help connect the ideas in the story.

Most importantly, DON'T GIVE UP! If a story fails, ask yourself why. Was the story itself simply not compelling? What about how you told it? Was the language too difficult? Was there anything that interrupted "flow" - both of the language and of the story?

Good luck with your Story Listening! I would love to hear from more teachers trying this in their classrooms and will continue to post videos regularly of my own.